Posting days: Sunday and Wednesday and, sometimes, maybe, extra bits in between.

Wednesday January 9th 2019

Since I am a silly, anthropomorphic human, I save one of the presents for Christmas Day. It’s the one which I am certain will be a sure fire hit.

It’s her tiger.

Tiger, the advertisement on Fetch’s website says, has nineteen squeakers. In fact, I count twenty. Brilliant! The toy is very soft and furry – Isis likes soft and furry – and has no stuffing to be pulled out.

This seems to me a very good idea. Isis, it so happens, isn’t a stuffing remover, but many dogs are, and it’s not good for the respiratory or the digestive system, I  imagine.

Anyway, I digress. There I am on Christmas Day, eagerly anticipating how my dear little dog will relish playing with her lovely toy.

“Happy Christmas, sweetheart,” and other soppy things, I say, holding out her amazing gift for her to smell.

Is she ecstatic?

Delighted?

Even faintly interested?

No.

She turns her head away.

Oh.

My Ellie would have been thrilled with a tiger, especially one which dangled limply, inviting a good shaking. She loved soft toys. (She even removed any label first. This always fascinated me. I guess it was a primitive umbilical cord severing instinct which made her do it.)

But again I digress. Isis is definitely less than thrilled. Silly Human is disappointed. But Isis is Isis. She’ll do things her way.

At dog’s bed time, interfering, as usual, I place tiger close to Hairy One’s pillow.

In the morning, obviously summarily evicted, tiger lies on the floor by the day bed.

All attempts to interest her in her new toy fail dismally.

I should have known they would: when Isis says no, she means no. Her toy remains where she dropped it.

A few days later, curious about how she’ll react, I take  the tiger into the front room and place it on the rug. If things belong to her, she keeps them in her room. Will she own it?

Isis potters in, finds it, and, without hesitation, picks it up, carries it carefully into the back room and places it next to her dog bed.

Ah. So she does know it’s hers.

But she still doesn’t play with it.

A few days later, Adopted Niece visits and I tell her the story. Then I fetch tiger and place it once more on the rug.

“She loves squeaky toys”,  I tell A.N. She’ll play with them in the garden all day, so why is she ignoring this one?”

At which, of course, Isis grasps tiger round its neck, shakes it vigorously, and

SQUEEEEAK, SQEEAKKKK, SQUEE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EEK!

Isis came from the Aeza cat and dog rescue and adoption centre in Aljezur, Portugal. For information about adopting an animal from the centre, contact kerry@aeza.org or  www.dogwatchuk.co.uk

Isis came from the Aeza cat and dog rescue and adoption centre in Aljezur, Portugal. For information about adopting an animal from the centre, contact kerry@aeza.org or  www.dogwatchuk.co.uk

Isis came from the Aeza cat and dog rescue and adoption centre in Aljezur, Portugal. For information about adopting an animal from the centre, contact kerry@aeza.org or  www.dogwatchuk.co.uk

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